The field of the present invention is an automobile safety improvement for aiding drivers of passenger vehicles driving in reverse.
When a driver of a parked passenger vehicle backs out of a parking space into a lane (or lanes) of cross-traffic, such as in a parking lot, the driver avoids collisions by looking for nearby oncoming cross-traffic before backing up. Views of the oncoming cross-traffic are frequently blocked when a large or tall vehicle is parked in an adjacent parking space, creating a safety problem. The frequency of such blockage has increased dramatically since the mid-1980's due to the popularity of taller passenger vehicles such as mini-vans and Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), while in prior years, an adjacent parked vehicle was frequently a sedan-type passenger vehicle whose trunk height was generally not higher than the driver's eye level.
Another safety problem arises during backing up when the direct, unaided, view towards oncoming cross-traffic lane(s) are beyond the peripheral vision of a driver's unaided eye, such as with drivers whose body has limited flexibility or limited range of motion in the neck and/or torso, and therefore cannot turn their head and/or torso far enough towards the rear of the vehicle when backing up to directly view the lane(s) of oncoming cross-traffic, such as is the case for many senior citizens.
While the use of a mirror or a mirror system for improving a driver's view of nearby traffic conditions is prolific in prior art, and familiar, with largely expected configurations, the problem of a driver's backing up their passenger vehicle, in reverse, without sufficient visibility of any nearby oncoming cross-traffic in lane(s) passing behind the vehicle has not been sufficiently addressed by prior art designs which were developed to fulfill other visibility objectives.
Prior to the present invention, drivers backing their passenger vehicle out of an obstructed-view parking space, garage, or fenced area must simply back out slowly enough for oncoming cross-traffic to respond in one of the following ways: a.) yielding to the backing-out vehicle, b.) honking to signal that the backing-up driver should stop backing-up, c.) swerving away from the backing-up vehicle while passing behind it, or d.) colliding with the backing-up vehicle. Auto Insurance Carriers have processed many tens of thousands of claims annually involving such backing collisions. The Motor Vehicle Crash Data from the GES (General Estimates System) and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) of the U.S. Department of Transportation indicate that more than 120,757 backing collisions took place during 1992, while more than 216,000 backing collisions took place in 1999. Hundreds of driver-education courses include a unit on safety tactics for backing up, and several educational videos are currently for sale on the backing-up-safely issue. The 2001 California Driver Handbook of Safe Driving Practices instructs a driver to get out of the vehicle to look before backing up. This method doesn't solve the problem entirely because new oncoming cross-traffic could easily arrive during the 4 or 5 seconds that elapse while the driver gets back into the vehicle, fastens the seatbelt, and puts the transmission in reverse, and the driver would still have restricted visibility of that oncoming cross-traffic lane while seated in the driver's seat. Other driver training manuals offer their road-sense tip advising a driver to honk a warning tap on their horn if visibility is limited when starting to back up. This does not necessarily successfully alert the oncoming cross-traffic vehicle(s) of the imminent lane blockage, nor does it provide the backing-up driver with visibility of the oncoming cross-traffic lane(s) when seated in the driver's seat.
There are numerous electronic collision avoidance systems (CAS) in prior art which address regions outside the vehicle for detecting the presence of traffic in parallel lanes of travel (highway blind spot regions), or for detecting and warning of objects directly behind the vehicle's rear bumper. These systems, using radar, microwave, video camera, etc. technologies, draw power from on board their vehicle, constituting non-passive (active) methods of improving safety. The disadvantage of these designs is that they do not provide the driver with a view of the region(s) to the side of the rear bumper, namely where any nearby oncoming cross-traffic approaches to flow behind the vehicle which is about to back up, in a passive (non-powered) method. Further disadvantages are the difficulty of installing the numerous CAS components on previously-manufactured vehicles, the relatively expensive array of electronic components that comprise a CAS, and the complexity of assembling numerous electronic sensors and mechanical components to accomplish the detection and warning system, and the susceptibility to electronic component failure which leads to a less robust system life.
Some vehicles have a standard-equipment system which emanates a warning beeping tone which sounds repeatedly when the transmission is in reverse. This warning beep system does not provide a driver with better visibility of any nearby oncoming cross-traffic imminently passing behind the driver's vehicle, it merely attempts to warn oncoming cross-traffic of an imminent lane blockage.
Prolific prior art ‘rear-view’ and ‘side-view’ mirrors and mirror systems exist for providing information to a driver who is driving forwards, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,418 (2000) to Edwards. The present inventor has found no prior art mirror method or mirror system stating as its object the visibility of the nearby oncoming cross-traffic located in the lane(s) of cross-traffic passing behind their car when driving in reverse by use of a mirror or mirror system.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,075,900 (1937) to Jackson, “Parking Device”, has a structure of elements which solves the problem of a backing-up driver whose own vehicle blocks the driver's direct view of whether the driver's own rear-bumper is aligned relative to the rear-bumper of a second vehicle located within 2 feet to the right of the driver's own vehicle, such as is encountered before backing into a vacant parallel-parking space on the driver's right-hand side. The structure of the Jackson parking mirror device requires the physical region located two feet to the right of the driver's own rear-bumper as an element. It also requires its reflective element aft of the driver to be fixed at the rear end of the driver's vehicle or inside a rear-facing windshield which is itself fixed at the rear end of the vehicle. The structure of Jackson also requires its rear reflecting element to be generally aimed somewhat downwards from horizontal. The disadvantage of the device of Jackson is that its structure fails to provide a seated driver with an image of the lane containing oncoming cross-traffic objects which are still 3 to 40 feet away but will soon cross behind the driver's vehicle.
A further problem which has not been found to be addressed by prior art is that many drivers have relatively limited mobility or bodily-flexibility for turning their head, neck, and/or torso far enough towards the rear of their vehicle to adequately face the rear window to successfully look in the direction(s) of the oncoming cross-traffic lane(s) before backing up. Such a driver's peripheral vision is often insufficient for directly viewing those nearby regions of oncoming cross-traffic lanes, regardless of whether a view-blocking obstruction is adjacent to their vehicle or not. There appears to be no prior art which claims as its objective to aid such a limited-flexibility driver with a passive (non-powered) method of viewing the aforementioned lane(s) for any oncoming cross-traffic before backing up.
It can therefore be appreciated that there exists an unsolved need for a passive system and/or method which improves visibility and safety before backing up into a lane(s) of cross-traffic by affording a driver an alternative view of the lane(s) of oncoming cross-traffic containing nearby traffic which is not yet directly behind the vehicle, yet imminently will be. The present system and method substantially departs from the designs and solutions found in prior art, and, despite its great advantages, has not been previously implemented by those skilled in the art.